At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, Russian president Vladimir Putin said the “West” is to blame for everything happening in Ukraine. Photo: TASS
According to Putin, an understanding was reached with US President Donald Trump at the Alaska summit that should “pave the way to peace in Ukraine.”
Vladimir Putin attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit and is set to appear at a military parade in Beijing. At the summit, he delivered remarks referencing the United Nations and the war in Ukraine, making a series of contentious claims, according to the Russian news agency TASS.
Putin said: “Following World War II, the United Nations was established, and it is also marking its 80th anniversary this year. Its Charter enshrined key principles: the supremacy of international law, a nation’s right to self-determination, sovereign equality, non-interference in internal affairs, and respect for the independence and national interests of every state. These principles remain valid and inviolable to this day.”
He added that the SCO’s work is built on those principles, “uniting like-minded partners committed to building a just, multipolar world order.”
Yet he went on to say there is not a war in Ukraine but a “crisis,” claiming the West drew Ukraine into it and “pulled” it toward NATO. He said he values the efforts of China, India and other strategic partners aimed at “facilitating a settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.”
“The understandings reached at the recent Russia–US summit in Alaska, I hope, are also moving in that direction, opening the road to peace in Ukraine,” Putin said, adding that the West’s constant attempts to draw Kyiv into NATO are one of the main causes of the “Ukrainian conflict.”
In Putin’s view, the West “provoked” a government coup in Kyiv in 2014, apparently referring to the Revolution of Dignity.
“The second cause of the crisis lies in the West’s constant attempts to pull Ukraine into NATO, which, as we have repeatedly stressed for many years, poses a direct threat to Russia’s security,” Putin said.
The Russian president argued that in 2014 “the political leadership that did not support Ukraine’s NATO entry was removed.” Only in that case, he said, can “the conflict be settled for the long term” - but only if its “root causes” are eliminated.
“For a Ukrainian settlement to be stable and long-term, the root causes of the crisis must be removed. A fair balance in the security sphere must be restored. In the bilateral meetings scheduled for today and tomorrow, I will, of course, brief my colleagues in more detail on the results of the talks in Alaska,” Putin said.
He added that the coup in Kyiv was followed by attempts “to use the armed forces to suppress resistance” in regions and among people who rejected it.
Speaking about US President Donald Trump and the Alaska summit, Putin said Europe- and North America–centric models of world order are fading, giving way to a “truly just system.”
“A system that would replace the obsolete Eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic models and take into account the interests of the broadest possible circle of countries, a truly balanced one. That means it would not allow attempts by some states to ensure their security at the expense of others,” the Russian president said - while omitting that Russia has sought to ensure what it calls its security by attacking Ukraine and routinely interfering in other countries’ internal affairs, practices unacceptable to both the UN and the SCO.
Earlier, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said during a meeting with Emmanuel Macron that there will be no meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
